Anyway that knows Southern California knows Long Beach is a metal city. Being the location of the legendary KNAC if a metal band was coming to LA they would play at Long Beach Arena as it is perfectly between LA and Orange County. Only holding 14,000 with arena seating (instead of amphitheatre seating) it's a great place to see a show as all seats are good. The last show played there was Metallica in 1988 because the fans got a little rowdy and torn the seat cushions out of the seats and began throwing them around. Just this year they started having metals shows again. A few months ago AC/DC (which was an awesome show) and now Pantera/Slayer. I would not miss this show for the world.

My girlfriend and I showed up about an hour and 15 minutes after the 6 pm start time to this show to catch the last half of Static X's set. I like Morbid Angel but I wished they would have been before Slayer instead of at the beginning. With them playing with Pantera earlier in the year you would think they would have gotten better billing. I've listened to Skrape's music and I don't really care for it so missing them was no big deal. I was here to see Slayer and no one else really mattered.

Of course the audience starting chanting Slayer! Slayer! Slayer! Slayer! I myself was surprised they starting with Raining Blood but didn't really care as it's one of my favorite Slayer songs. For most of Slayers set there were 4 - 5 pits going all over the floor it was quite a spectacle to see. It seemed like Slayer wanted to take the show up a notch since they were in the legendary Long Beach Arena (scream for me Long Beach) and (according to Tom) hadn't played a show in LA for six years because they had been banned from doing so for some reason. I was sitting in the first level off the floor and the sound was perfect from Tom's singing and bass playing to the guitars of Jeff and Kerry and the drums of Paul. Considering they only had 45 minutes (Fuck Pantera) they truly did an amazing job of getting the crowd pitting and did a great job of picking some awesome tunes to play. Bloodline sounded a hundred times more awesome live then the recording. A couple of dickheads in the audience thought it would be cool to throw fire works around which prompted to raise his hands and make the gesture of one fist hitting the palm of his other hand. I hope the guy got his ask kicked but I couldn't tell. I expected Slayer to one up Pantera and they did just that. Especially with playing Angel of Death at the end. I really think that was their way to say to Pantera, TOP THAT!

I must admit that Pantera did rule and the level of intensity they displayed has increased over the last year. This was the third time that I have seen them in 12 months and by far the best. Pantera did have a bigger pit but they had to ask for it something I have never seen Slayer do.